Andrew Painter's comeback journey took another step forward on Wednesday afternoon in Surprise, Arizona. In his fourth start in the Arizona Fall League, Painter delivered a performance that mirrored his previous outing: three scoreless innings, three strikeouts, no walks, and an ERA of 0.90 over his four AFL appearances.
“I think three is the plan moving forward, just kind of getting my feet wet,” Painter said. The young pitcher has been building off each start since returning from an elbow injury and Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for two seasons.
Painter utilized all four of his pitches during Glendale's 8-7 victory over Surprise. His fastball reached up to 99 mph and averaged close to 97 mph. He effectively used his curveball in the low-80s and a harder slider in the upper-80s. New to his repertoire was a changeup thrown at around 90-91 mph with reduced spin rates between 1,550 and 1,740 RPM.
“That’s something I’ve been working on,” Painter said about his changeup. “The changeup has been the last to come and something we were looking forward to working on here.”
His strikeouts came from different pitches against various hitters. He ended the first inning by getting Astros catcher Collin Price to miss an 83 mph curveball buried in the dirt. In the second inning, he struck out Guardians infielder Milan Tolentino with a 96.6 mph fastball after an extended battle and followed it up by striking out Rangers infielder Cody Freeman with consecutive sliders at 87 mph.
Despite some hard-hit balls off his fastball, Painter sees progress with each outing. "I think that’s where that changeup comes into play," he noted.
Painter has pitched ten innings for the Desert Dogs this fall, allowing three runs on eight hits with one walk while striking out ten batters. His control remains sharp as he threw strikes consistently throughout his appearances.
“During the live BPs that was kind of my big thing,” Painter remarked regarding maintaining command of his pitches.
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